Youth Prom (formerly known as "Mormon Prom")

Every year the local stakes sponsor a Youth Prom. My girls were finally old enough this year! No dates, but luckily going stag was encouraged if you didn't have a date. Here are Elizabeth and Caroline at the dance.

The decorating theme seemed to be "rustic elegance," and the decorating was really, really well-done. There was teen-favorite food in every activity room. This room had karaoke and served Italian cream sodas.

There were even thoughtful tables in the restroom area.

After the party Caroline said it was so much fun, more fun than she thought it was going to be, that she was going to try much harder next year to get a date!

One last picture of my sweet girls.

(I made Elizabeth's dress on the left and Caroline's came from a thrift store with the jacket refashioned by our friend Rhonda.)

Locks of Love

Less than a week ago Elizabeth suddenly told me she wanted to get her hair cut and donate it to Locks of Love.  I love her hair--love it!--but I know it's hard to handle, so I agreed. Here she is before:

It came all the way down to her waist!

Here she is getting ready--she was really excited, not nervous at all:

And here is the "after":

She is thrilled!

Generation 1.5

In March our family made a quick weekend trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. We went for a temple sealing, but instead ended up in the emergency room at LDS Hospital up in the Avenues.  Happily, it wasn't one of the girls, but it was one of the relatives, and she had to deal with a dislocated shoulder. Not at all fun for her.

While we waited, we took the girls to B Street Park. This tiny park is on a lot that I think once held a Victorian house. It's a ten minute walk from where I used to live and I took my older children there many times. It's hard to explain how much I loved taking my second set of children to the same place my first set enjoyed so much.

New Year's surprise!

New Year's Day the kids came running in to my room to tell me it had snowed overnight.  Not so strange, right?  Wrong, because we live in Arizona in an area where it snows only every couple of years and no more than 0.25" when it does.

We had about an inch and it stayed until early afternoon.  The children loved it!

An October medical tradition

Somehow the girls' annual checkups have become an October thing. A couple of years ago I had to take one of them in for something (very rare in our family) and the regular pediatrician was out and we agreed to see his partner.  Loved her.  Never went back to the original one.

It's fun to listen to her ask all the medical questions, then launch into the social ones, great to hear the age-appropriate answers, reassuring to see their growth and development is right on track.

Love these girls!

First day of school--Part 2

While I was taking Sophia to the bus, Bill was taking Caroline and Elizabeth to theirs.  Last year he drove them to school every day because for one reason or another we never figured out exactly what time the bus came through the neighborhood.  However, this year the information was easy to find and Bill and I decided they need to ride the bus both to and from school, which makes it easier for him to get to work early.

A very nice "shop locally" promotion

We almost always get out of the house on Thursdays because my mother's house cleaners come that day and I need to get the girls out of their way.  Today I took them to 4th Avenue, which is a fun and funky street near the university.  I thought we would window shop up and down the street, which entails about 6 blocks, then go home.  Instead we found announcements for a "Where Is Waldo?" promotion.

The girls got a "passport" at one of the sponsoring stores, then set out to find a 6" cardboard cut out of Waldo in the stores listed.  We found 15 of them!  Some of the store clerks were helpful and some weren't.  I did notice about half the clerks' eyes darted to the approximate location when I told them we were looking for Waldo.  LOL.

Holding the passports in our hands kind of gave us permission to walk all over various stores and even restaurants while we looked for Waldo.  It was fun.  And of course it got us into more than a dozen stores we never would have gone into.

When it was all over we did not stop at one of the interesting restaurants that dotted the street because they were a little more than my budget would allow, but we did stop at a Dairy Queen in the district, which was actually a very rare event for my girls.  No inside seating, only outside.  Two Blizzards and a large sundae, please.

Summer party!

Our ward (church congregation) has parties . . . just because, and plenty of them.  This was the first time we've ever had a large water feature for a party and it was a huge hit with all the kids and some of the adults as well.

We love our zoo!

This trip certainly seemed to be for the birds . . . .

 

There were a couple of good looking girls in the same area and you can see one of them in the background above.

 

This was another peacock.  Such beautiful feathers!  The bird below let me get that close to it (no telephoto lens).  It does not have an aviary but flies free.  However, I've seen it there many times, so it knows the zoo is a good home.

 

This crane got spooked by something and gave a really loud squawk that startled us!

 

There were a number of duck with their teenagers.

The girls wore their swim suits in hopes of playing in the water area, but it was closed due to an infestation of bees.  Water + heat, of course the bees like it!

 

And of course we always take a picture by the sculpture.  It's almost as good for watching growth as the marks on the back of the kitchen door.

Bon Voyage!

Today Caroline and Elizabeth are leaving on a trip they have been anticipating ALL SCHOOL YEAR!

They'll fly to Washington D.C. tonight and start touring just about as soon as they get there tomorrow morning.  They have had hours and hours of extra classes to learn about the history of Washington D.C., and by extension, about American history.  When they arrive for a tour of the White House or the Washington Monument or the Holocaust Museum, they will know why it's important to our history and to them personally.

Happy 12th!

Caroline and Elizabeth have been looking forward to turning twelve for months!  Twelve means moving from Primary to Young Women at Church (children's program to teenager program) and it's a big milestone.  Also, since they have relatively late birthdays, they are some of the last 6th graders to turn twelve.

Here they are with their cake that assumes knowledge of place value:

 

 Including me behind the camera, here is the gang who celebrated their birthday with them:

Evening treat

One of the girls told me she wanted to make chocolate fondue for dessert.  Ummm . . . why not?  We had enough interesting things to dip, along with all the ingredients for the chocolate dip.

We had big and little marshmallows, banana slices, dried apricots, and pretzel sticks.  The chocolate was a mixture of chocolate chips, sugar, and canned milk, all warmed in the microwave until smooth, then put over a tea light candle.

It was really good.

Elizabeth's dark night

This is what Elizabeth uses to sleep.  Well, not the cat costume, but the eye shade.  Caroline likes to sleep with a tiny night light and Elizabeth likes darkness.  Nice compromise, I'd say.

Look what curly hair + humidity look like!

Elizabeth has really pretty, curly hair.  During the winter when it is crackling dry here, her hair sometimes borders on straight.  See how it looks during the summer rainy season!

 

Singin' in the rain!

Monsoon season is bringing us rain!  I think this year has brought at least average rain, which is really needed in our area.  Here is Elizabeth living it up in the rain!

 

A sort-of trip to the temple

Our ward has been sponsoring a trip to the LDS temple 2 hours away twice a year as long as we've been living here and we haven't missed one yet.  We provide our own transportation, but they provide babysitting near the temple, along with lunch after our temple session of worship.

In all this time Bill and I have never been asked to babysit, but today was finally our turn.  We were assigned to watch the children for the first half of the time the parents would be gone, then we would go to the temple and do some faster-than-normal things there due to the shortened time.

But!  There was a wreck on the way to the big city that didn't hold *us* up because we passed it only about 10 minutes after it happend and the freeway wasn't closed yet, but almost everyone else behind us got caught in the traffic jam as they rerouted traffic off the freeway and then back on.  And then the temple apparently was PACKED!  There were weddings!  There were guests!  There were photographers!  There were bridesmaids in their pretty, matching dresses!  There were more regular temple attendees than normal, even for an August Saturday because of some internal changes!  We decided to just stay at the babysitting place and skip the extreme hustle and bustle of the temple today!

Honestly, one reason I go to the temple is to feel the peace of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I wanted to feel that today and I feared I wouldn't, or at least not to the extent I usually do.

So the picture is of the girls as we got ready to leave.  You can see how excited Elizabeth was to leave.  The girls really love this semi-annual activity and guess what?  Our ward juuuust changed it to a quarterly activity, so we'll be going at least four times a year from now on.  So happy about that!

Great low-tech library activity

Several Saturdays a month our library had a good kids' activity.  Here is the prep for it:

 Put up some tables, including one lying flat on the floor with its legs still folded up.

Put out lots of bins FULL of Lego pieces. 

Let the kids create.

After the children make their pieces, they put them on that library cart behind Caroline and they go into a display case.  The next time we go to the library we'll be able to see the girls' creations.  And although we will be going back on Thursday anyway, you can bet the girls will not let me forget!

A few seasonal questions

What is top of mind for you at this time of year?

The heat!  It is really hot in my part of the country and my house is hard to cool.

What, if anything, do you have upcoming that you are starting to think about or plan for?

My children go back to school in less than a month, so I'm starting to think about new clothes (middle school!) and new schedules with these children in more than one school for the first time ever.

What, if anything, is on your to-do list this time of year that is different than your list from other times of year?

I have more library visits and kid-centered activities on the schedule at this time of year.  I also do my best to avoid using my oven, so we eat a little differently in the summer and I'm always looking for new oven-less dinners.

The two middle schoolers running errands with me in the heat.

Musical instrument petting zoo

One of our local orchestras puts on a petting zoo.  Animals?  No, musical instruments!

They had two kinds of brass instruments (a big hit with the girls), a xylophone, and three of the four orchestra instruments.  That's our orchestra friend at the back left of the picture below.

Both of my twins have taken orchestra at school for the past two years.  Caroline, below, plays the viola.  All three girls are interested in the cello, mostly, I think, because their beloved original piano teacher is also an accomplished cellist.

Sophia's teacher has already been assigned for 4th grade and I know from last year that he'll sign his entire class up for orchestra, despite its being an optional activity. ;-)  Works for me.  There is at least one school-owned cello that I'm hoping Sophia can snag next year to avoid the rental fees, if she does decide to learn to play the cello.

Here they are with the younger brother of the piano teacher.  He's also the son of our orchestra friend.

This event was sponsored by Bookmans, a great used-book store in our city.

New old things

Did you remember these little footies from when you were a child?  I guess I should clarify, "If you were a child in the 1950s or 1960s?"  I remember my mom wore them all the time.  She called them "sockies."

Now that bare legs are in fashion, low socks or foot liners are in fashion again.  Here is the display at Walmart today:

The ones right in the middle that look like bikini bottoms are ones you can wear if you're wearing open-toed shoes.  They think of everything, don't they?  I bought some fairly straightforward cotton ones with a little padding at the ball of the foot.  They are the proper size for my feet instead of the hand-me-down ones I've been wearing for awhile that threaten to cut off the circulation in my heels. :-)

These two little girls love to play a game in just about any store.  It's called, "Hide from Mom, but make sure we're not very far away from her."

I know, I'm a lucky girl.